Pensacola Beach Brawl

10/02/2015

This year has been all about putting myself out there and trying new things. Although I’ve been doing CrossFit for about seven years, I’ve never done a real deal competition until now! CrossFit Roux sent a men and women’s RX team and a male individual to the Pensacola Beach Brawl last weekend. Spoiler alert… no one made the podium, but we got a taste of what competing against incredible athletes feels like, and we had a blast! The competition was held in a parking lot right next to the beach, so Saturday was spent relaxing on the gorgeous sand in between watching our gym member, David, compete in the individual competition. David placed 15th out of 45 in the scaled division. You could see the determination in his face with every workout. I was so impressed with his performance, and I was really jealous that his competition was over on Sunday and he got to relax and watch us!We all got a little too much sun that day and we opted to stay in and cook on Saturday night. We made Mexican food (pro tip: salt and lime on pineapple is divine) and went to bed early! I woke up on Sunday with a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m not a super competitive person, but I also didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of thousands of people or let my team down. Can you see the nervousness on my face?! My team (Missy, Kelsey, and Kata from left to right) are incredible athletes! All three of these girls have muscle ups which are the hardest CrossFit skill to master and something that I’m working to get! Our handsome boys team! We started Sunday morning at an athletes briefing. The weather forecast looked iffy and we were told that they may change the workouts to ensure our safety if it did rain! Look at all those CrossFitters! The boys kicked off the event with a max clean and jerk and a max snatch/overhead squat complex.

Next, we competed in a workout called “The Reverse” that consisted of burpee box jumps, 85lb snatches, double-unders, and toes to bar. Snatches, toes to bar, and doubles-unders are three of my weakest movements, so I was most nervous about this workout. I called to check on Brennan right before the workout started and my mother-in-law told me that he wasn’t doing well. He had a terrible cough that was causing him to throw up. I was worried about my baby, so my head wasn’t where I needed it to be when 3-2-1 Go was called. Our team came in second to last place in the event mostly due to my inefficiencies, but the best part of the workout was what happened with the team that finished last. One of the girls on the last place team got stuck doing double-unders and couldn’t string them together. All of the other 8 teams circled around her and we were shouting her name and words of encouragement. I love that about CrossFit… usually the loudest cheers are for the last person working! While we were waiting for the sandbag beach relay event to start, Missy thought she would ask what heat they were on. She came running back to our tent and frantically told us we needed to go NOW! We ripped our shoes and socks off and sprinted to the beach where 8 other teams were waiting for us! It was a little embarrassing, but I’m glad we weren’t disqualified for not showing up! We had to sprint 100 meters in the sand while carrying a sandbag, drop the sand bag and sprint back to tag the next teammate. There was little time to be nervous (or warm up) so we just went for it! My quads felt like bricks about a quarter of the way in to the last hundred meters, but I pushed myself because I knew it would be over in seconds.

After the run, I felt really sick. I tried to force myself to eat, but the nerves coupled with the heat really got to me. I downed a protein shake and slowly chewed on half a protein bar and we watched the boys do the “You Pick Two” workout where 2 team members completed forty 155lb shoulder to overhead lifts and forty pull ups and the other two team members completed fifteen muscle ups, twenty 155lb power cleans, forty wall balls, twenty power cleans, and fifteen muscle ups. The boys were cool, calm, and collected and had no problem breezing through this workout. The girls team had this workout last, and our goal was to complete the first 15 muscle ups, but at the end of the day we knew it would be tough! The rain rolled in, and the twenty minute shower put a wrench in our complex. Instead of finding a max clean and jerk and snatch/overhead squat complex, the officials switched it up. We would now need to find our one max rep thruster. I was much more confident in my thruster ability, but the problem was none of us had ever done a max thruster. We had no idea what weight to even shoot for! We all did better than we thought we would… I remember Kata saying she thought she might get 105 lbs and she ended up getting 30 pounds heavier!

I love the look on Kelsey’s face… Can I put this down yet?!? The boys wrapped up the day with “The Reverse” event and the beach relay. Shane is a speed demon and he was chosen to go last on the relay. He TOOK OFF, and our cheering section started chanting SHANE! SHANE! SHANE! All of the other spectators were watching us instead of the athletes. It was an exciting end for the four of them and beer was immediately consumed! The last event for the girls… the one with the muscle-ups! Missy realized shortly before we started that she didn’t even know what was past the first 15 muscle-ups because her and Kelsey didn’t expect to complete them. Kata and I handled the shoulder to overheads and pull-ups and left Kesley and Missy about 8 minutes to get as far as they could. Kelsey had a pretty scary tumble on her first muscle-up attempt and nearly fell on her face, but she and Missy got into a groove and alternated back and forth until… they were all completed!

With time left, Kelsey started on the cleans. Missy went beast mode as Kelsey moved onto the wall-balls! Time was called before the wall-balls were completed, but we were so excited that we got so much farther than we thought! It was an amazing feeling to complete the competition! The ladies placed 6th out of 9 teams, and the boys got 19th out of 45 teams! We felt accomplished and the boys exceeded their goal of placing in the top half. While we didn’t make the podium, our cheering section definitely placed first! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… we really have the best members! Thanks for the support guys! Thank you to my photographers for the weekend, Hailey and Heidi! Thank you to the Pensacola Beach Brawl staff for putting on a really well run event! Thank you for our team sponsor: ūMin Supplements! I noticed a huge difference in my recovery while taking the minerals!

2 Comments

You are such an inspiration! Don’t take this the wrong way but it was refreshing to hear the “hard” parts of the competition for you all because when you’re still new to CF it can still be pretty intimidating. You all look amazing and most of all are awesome for even trying! Competing is nerve-wracking, but especially as an adult when your toddler is at home. Proud of you all!